From coronations to Revolution to reconciliation, Notre Dame has witnessed nearly 900 years of French history.
Articles on French history
Displaying 41 - 55 of 55 articles
The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn’t static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.
Antoinette de Saint-Étienne was a Canadian First Nations woman of the 17th century whose beautiful singing voice attracted the attention of a queen.
After the 1994 genocide, Rwanda pivoted towards the Anglophone world. But not entirely.
Essays On Air: Joan of Arc, our one true superhero
The Conversation22.1 MB (download)
Joan of Arc has been depicted as a national heroine, nationalist symbol, a rebellious heretic and a goodly saint. Forget Wonder Woman and Batman – Jeanne d’Arc may be our one and only true superhero.
Memorials to the terror attack have become visual and transient – a battleground to contest parts of French identity.
Forget Wonder Woman and Batman. The Maid of Orléans - an uneducated, teenage girl who led armies to victory - is a hero for our times.
Macron’s portrait and taste in literature are full of political symbols to be sussed.
At the Versailles court, a well-directed glance could decide a person’s fate. Imagine if Donald Trump were so subtle.
What does it mean to be French? The two standing presidential candidates hope voters will agree with their version of the answer.
Donald Trump has a Versailles-inspired apartment. There’s a popular TV series and now, a new exhibition of treasures from the palace. A glittering symbol of aristocratic frivolity, Versailles was, in fact, a place of awesome royal power.
France has a long history of protest and terror attacks from a range of different groups.
One publisher spent over 40 years trying to profit off Hitler’s hateful tome.
When Australians went to the Western Front, language failed them. So they invented slanguage: a mix of slang, French words and creative swearing that, among other things, gave us the word “Aussie”.
France’s colonial legacy remains an uncomfortable subject.
Top contributors
-
Emeritus professor, History, The University of Melbourne
-
Associate Professor, School of History, ANU / Chercheur Associé at the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Australian National University
-
Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies and Creative Writing, Monash University
-
Director, Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University
-
PhD candidate in Early Modern History, Monash University
-
Associate Professor, University College Dublin
-
Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne
-
Professor of History, Missouri University of Science and Technology
-
Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
-
Assistant Professor in Memory Studies, Coventry University
-
Lecturer in French Studies, University of Westminster
-
Lecturer in French Studies, University of Sheffield
-
Lecturer in French History, Trinity College Dublin
-
Professor of History, University at Albany, State University of New York
-
Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London